MapleStory: End Seed
by VeryCleverPenName
Summary: Starting in Kerning City, a mysterious chain of events caused devastation to Victoria Island, and it spreads, rippling from the epicenter. Rika, a Nightwalker on a mission to locate the people responsible, is pulled into the middle of the fray herself.
1. Chapter 1

_A note to everyone reading._

_This is the first story I have ever written, and I've thought of it to become a series._

_I enjoy taking pre-existing ideas of MapleStory and tweaking them such that I can mold the story the way I like and add ideas of my own of these concepts, as you will notice._

_Also, I have split this one chapter into two._

_Read along. I'm hopeful you'll enjoy it._

Kerning City.

A city known for its beautiful orange dusk sky. A city known for its ghostly subway systems. A city known for its secrets, thieves, riots . . . A city known for its hell. But recently, hell is worse. The once secret war between the Dark Lord and Lady Syl is revealed. Thieves have become increasingly aggressive. Riots are an everyday occurrence. In Kerning City, thief is pitted against thief; Bandits and Assassins on one side, and, on the other, Dual Blades.

A lone Nightwalker skips through the rooftops of this concrete jungle, through the thick smog and cold ambiance of its atmosphere. She was clad in Dark Shadow equipment, but lacking the Pilfer; she preferred to let her long, wavy red hair loose. Her footsteps made no noise, but they didn't need to; the chaotic noise from the riots in this place drowns most other sounds. Nevertheless, she proceeds stealthily, hoping not to come across any aggressive individuals willing to take the life from her as quickly, or as gruesomely, as they can.

"Scout Kerning City," the Chief Knights commanded back at Ereve, almost four hours ago. "Look for anything that could lead us to the location of Lady Syl. Some of the Dual Blade aggressors possess skills that even Lady Syl couldn't have taught. We have plenty to ask her."

At first, the notion of locating this hideout seemed ridiculous to Rika, the Nightwalker in question. _Cygnus Knights are supposed to eliminate the Black Mage. Hell, Cygnus Knights should be focused on locating __**him**__!_ The more she thought about it, however, the more it made sense. These Stalkers, as these more powerful Dual Blades are dubbed, could have been given these abilities by the Black Mage through Lady Syl, or perhaps even by the Black Mage himself.

As Rika runs through the city's canopy, she could see the scars done unto this place; collapsed buildings, gashes on the walls and streets which daggers and kataras have made, piles of cars where they have crashed, you name it. The city's landscape is crumbling. Both the Jazz Bar and the Secret Garden are sacked; gone. The new locations of the two rogue leaders are anyone's guess.

She stopped at the corner of the top of the tallest building, panting. After three hours of searching for any little anomaly, her energy is drained. _A little rest shouldn't hurt. The higher vantage point should give me ideas on where to search next, anyway._ As she reaches for a Mana Elixir in her pack, she glances over the new ruined skyline of Kerning City.

_The first rogues started here_, she thought. _All rogues started here._

Rika had never lived here. She had thought of residing here before, but after witnessing what there is to behold, she reconsiders. Shaking these off her head, she takes a rejuvenating drink from the Elixir bottle._ Back to work._

Work is interrupted.

The suspicious sound of footsteps whispered from behind. Someone was trying to sneak up on her. She hoped it isn't a Stalker; heck, she hoped it isn't a Dual Blade at all, but only they would be willing to cause her any harm. In this situation, she could jump off the building to avoid a possible attack, but her experience with Flash Jump is insufficient, and therefore too risky for her to use it to reach even the next building in front of her, which is too far of a distance away; or she could try to face the source of the footsteps.

She decided on the latter. _Better to fight death than to flee to death, right?_

In one swift movement, she spun to face the assailant and flung two Steely knives in his direction, aimed at his head. A direct hit!

Or so she thought.

The stars simply passed right through a faded silhouette. _Mirror Image. Crap._ Her eyes searched beside the silhouette for the Dual Blade, but couldn't find him. The real thing flanked her on the left, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Thinking fast, she flash jumped the distance she can achieve inward the structure's plateau, dodging three lethal stabs in the nick of time. Quickly reorienting herself, she threw another pair of Steely knives at the Dual Blade, but they, too, flew right through him. _What?_ It was only another animated silhouette. It took her time to realize it, but there were four others besides the two she had encountered, and they all move independently.

_This is bad._ And that, it is; the first individual she came upon was a Stalker, or should that be, the first individual she has yet to come upon. _This isn't Mirror Image._ All these dark figures were products of Soul Splitter, one of the currently identified capabilities of this new breed of killer.

Rika was both lucky and unlucky, in that Soul Splitter is known to deplete its user's life and renders him immobile to create six silhouettes for a short period of time, but getting to the Stalker before he gets to her will be a challenge. One of the silhouettes leaps into the air and lunges towards her, two more approach her from the sides. There wasn't any time to do any thinking; just enough to let instinct take over and jump back. The Flying Assaulter narrowly misses her, making a small, albeit noticeable scratch on the tip of her orange-lined shoe, but the two silhouettes sent a storm of slashes at her, and caught her as she makes another leap. Intense pain surged through her body. She was, however, a tough enough cookie not to scream bathed in this amount of hurt, and sane enough to keep herself from panicking.

The six silhouettes approach her slowly, tauntingly moving closer to her bit by bit, as if savoring the moment before eliminating her existence. She crawls herself backwards until a wall stops her. With her limbs twitching and her eyes watering, she ignores these dark figures, looking for the Stalker. _He's got to be close to dead. These things have been around for long enough. _And she spots him.

He stood motionlessly on the edge of the crane next to the building. _Die._ A single Steely should be enough to kill him at this point. She ceases her breathing to aim delicately at the distant target, and then sends two more throwing knives to fly through the air. The silhouettes have already reached her. They're standing around her. Hopeful that at least one Steely will pierce the heart of the assailant just before his silhouettes carve her body dead, she closes her eyes as if they'll disappear by the time she reopens them.

A cold gust of wind engulfs her, and she is grabbed in the neck by a strong vice grip of a hand, pinning her against the wall. It was the Dual Blade. His eyes were the coldest she has ever seen; they looked colder than those of a frozen dead body. The silhouettes have gone, and he now controls her fate. All Rika could do was helplessly kick him and flail in his grasp. Even scratching his arm with a Steely didn't work.

"Shall I welcome you to death?" he taunted, loosening his grip just a bit to hear a response. Rika knew better than to give him one; it could only make him more torturing. Instead, she used this loosened hold to take deep breaths and save herself from suffocation. He resumes strangling her, and she resumes kicking at his Dark Studded clothes and scratching the Steel Rover that closes her throat.

All this was interrupted by the arrival of yet another thief, jumping onto the edge of the building. He wore on his face a stark, focused yet relaxed glare, and on his body, a Nightshift set. Sweaty and panting, he was possibly fleeing another scene or just survived one. He produced a Triangular Zamadar from its sheath and took a battle-ready stance. Rika wanted to scream at him to run, but she couldn't with a hand grasping her throat.

"What the hell are you gonna do? Look at you," taunted Rika's captor. He was still letting her breathe every now and then. "You don't look like you got guts for anything."

A coin fell from the rogue's pocket and wheeled toward Nightwalker and her captor. The Dual Blade released Rika and picked it up, smiling at its shine.

"Thanks," he said. "I suspect I'm paid a quarter short, anyway." He took the coin to the wheezing girl and coated it in the crimson liquid oozing from a wound on her neck.

He swallowed it.

"Money sure does taste better when there's someone's blood on it." He obviously felt like a lord.

The rogue dashed toward him in the blink of an eye, wounding him in the chest with his dagger. The Dual Blade was surprised; he was misled. The seemingly lowly rogue was in reality a Chief Bandit. _No problem_, he thought. _I'm deadlier_. Leaving the girl, he focused his attention on the new arrival, taking a Dragon's Tail and a Blazing Dragon Katara in his hands, activating Mirror Image and charged at the Bandit with a Tornado Spin. The Chief Bandit moved out of the way and brought an Assaulter upon the Stalker as he passed. Another wound was opened, this time, on the back. The Blade turned and attacked with eight fatal hits, and the Bandit parried with six savage hits of his own; two cut him, but he barely made a face of pain.

"You're welcome for the quarter, by the way," the Chief Bandit stated, "but you made this much easier for me." With a flick of his finger, a low boom bellowed from within the Stalker's belly. Both dagger and katara fell to the floor before he fell to his knees. He let out an anguished scream before hugging his stomach and coughing up blood. The Chief Bandit kicked both of his weapons out of reach. He removed the mask, and grinned upon seeing his recognizable face.

"Well now," he said, staring at the Stalker coldly in the eye. "Deja vu."

Rika could feel herself drifting into unconsciousness and started to close her eyes. The last thing she sees is the Bandit swinging his dagger at the attacker. The last thing she hears is a morbid gurgle followed by the plentiful sound of droplets meeting the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hours pass since that gruesome scene._

The young Nightwalker stirred and groaned. She felt no more searing pain, and she wondered to herself what happened after that last scene she witnessed. She opened her eyes, and was greeted by someone she's known for years.

"Ah, Rebecca, you're awake!" he said. "You're good as new." It was Royce; a Thunder Breaker she trained with in Ereve. His thick accent clearly shows his Scottish roots. A rugged cap of brown hair rested on his head, topped by a Leather Ocean Hat, and his body is clothed by a Green Plasteer. "You lost a nasty amount of blood, but thankfully this man helped keep you among the living." Royce pointed to the Priest standing beside the doorway. Apparently he had just entered, as he finished planting another few steps into the room.

"Good evening," he spoke softly to her.

Rika beheld a most cherubic sight. If she were dead, he'd be an angel. An elegant fuzz of light blue hair crowned the spectacled man, and his visage, too, was elegant. He wore a gentle smile, and it seems to Rika that this is the face he keeps most often. Flowing down his body was a Blue Enigmatic, matching his color of hair. She hadn't any idea what to say but to return the greeting.

"Good evening, and thank you," Rika said. Orienting herself, she observed the room around her. It was austere, to say the least, with the least liveliest of gray walls, decorated only by cracks and pipes here and there. Its only source of light was an incandescent bulb hanging from a wire at the middle of the ceiling. The sound of explosions permeated throughout the place; they seemed to come from above. To her strange surprise, she lay on a hospital bed, but this place was definitely not a hospital of any sorts.

"You should be thanking Cray for taking you to me," started the elegant Priest. "He found you under attack by a Stalker, and carried you here all by himself. I merely nursed you back to full health," he finished. _He certainly is modest_, she thought.

"Well you have to be thanked a lot, anyway," Rika responded. "I'd be a useless bag of meat if I were brought here barely alive and then die later." She smiled. Her comment released a soft chuckle out of the Priest. "What should I call you?"

"Apollo," he said. "Your friend here, Royce, called you Rebecca, is that right?"

"Yes, Rebecca. I prefer to be called Rika, though," she answered, and Apollo nodded. "I just think it's less of a mouthful to say." Her eyes wandered around the room once more, trying to figure out where she is.

"You're in the Dark Lord's new hideout," informed the Priest, noticing her curious wandering eyes. "The Hive, as we call it. It's hidden in the subways."

"Wait," Rika said, "what's a Magician doing in a Thieves' hideout?"

"I'm a very good friend of Cray's, and he called me here to tend to his wounded allies," Apollo said. "Besides…" a long pause followed. He still wore that smile, but shut his eyes. Rika sensed something bothered him.

"Besides…?" the question was asked as if to add oil to get a rusty jaw speaking again.

"It's not only Kerning City with these problems, anymore," he finally spoke, "In the five hours that you rested, Ellinia is struck by more powerful Magicians; Obscurae, as we refer to them. They reduced the fragile town to ashes. Perion, too, is attacked, and they're called Slayers. The Nautilus has left for Ludibrium, carrying the refugees they can from Ellinia and Henesys. Henesys is the only remaining safe town in Victoria Island, but it's uncertain when it will be beset by aggressive bowmen. I'm here also because Kerning City has the largest number of injured. Others are, too, for the same reason."

The news shocked Rika. The fact that a leadership rivalry between Lady Syl and the Dark Lord has transformed into an all-out battle throughout Victoria Island in so little time astonished her._Something immense must be going on beneath this._She could only wonder what, and in her mind, this definitely involves the Black Mage. Her thinking behind the thought is scratchy, however.

"Right," started Royce. His arms were crossed and his back rested on the austere gray wall. "The Ellinia ships to Ereve and Orbis have moved to Henesys for the time being to avoid the Obscurae. They're stuffed like a sack full of potatoes each time they dock. Everybody wants to get the hell out."

"We should report this to Neinhart!" suggested Rika, sitting up on the bed, slipping on her Dark Cleaves and Orange-lined Shoes.

"You wish, pretty girl," Royce said. "We're not the only Knights on the continent. Someone must have told them already. Anyway, it's a gauntlet up there in the surface with all these Stalkers. Getting to Henesys will be precarious; Balrogs flying all over the route, you see."

_He's right,_ Rika thought, nodding at the Thunder Breaker. "Has any Cygnus Knight sent to Kerning City returned to Ereve at all?" Rika asked.

"No," bluntly answered Royce. "Sixty of us were sent to Kerning City. Twenty-eight are here in the Hive, us included. The other thirty-two are dead." The grim news was another indicator of the extremeness of the situation. Rika slumped. The elegant Priest handed her some relaxing potions, taking note the deep sighs she made.

"Apollo!" shouted someone from outside. Urgency ringed with the voice. The man who entered the room had a familiar face to Rika, and it should be; it was the Chief Bandit from earlier, the one who rescued her. The difference was in his equipment; he was now in a Dark Studded set and wielded a Dragon's Tail dagger. _He looted!_

"I had a feeling you were here," he said to the Priest. Rika observed his face, as she couldn't when she first saw him. He and Apollo resembled each other. _They could be brothers… But I doubt they are._ Their similarities end where the Bandit has shaggily arranged dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"There's a group of hostiles coming in the Hive's direction," the warning startled Apollo. "They must have followed our guys taking the injured here. You're our best Priest; we need your help eliminating them. Shit'll happen if they discover where we're hiding."

"Dual Blades?" Apollo asked.

"Four Dual Blades, one Stalker," he slipped the Blood Nightfox onto his head, concealing his shaggy hair. "I hear they've got an Outlaw with them, too, probably just a mercenary."

The Priest pushed his glasses back against his nose's bridge and props up a Blue Galaxy hat. Extending his hand out in front of himself, he produced a magnificent horizontal glow and grasped it as it solidified into a Kage staff. He nodded, perhaps to show his understanding of what must be done, and says "Let's go."

"Wait!" interrupted Rika. The two men have barely left the room. The Chief Bandit looked at her over his shoulder, examining that this is the girl he found and saved hours earlier. "I'm coming!"

"You have three choices," he started, counting with his fingers. "A; you're sane and decide to stay here and keep out of danger. B; you come along to help, but ultimately die. C; you just have a death wish. There's an Elite Stalker walking with them. Think it over. Not everyone swallows coins; you were lucky. I wouldn't have beaten him any other way." _Think it over_, Rika echoed in her mind as he and Apollo sped off. Her decisions kept alternating between the first two choices, despising the third.

"I don't have a death wish!" she said to herself, stressing the second word in her statement. Choosing the second option but omitting the words "ultimately die," she took her Claw from the stool beside the bed and ran out the door following suit.

"Rebecca!" Royce cried. He doubted she heard. She's bad at listening sometimes, especially to him. He always admired her undaunted courage and strong will to succeed, as he witnessed time after time for years when they trained together back in Ereve. However, she doesn't always think and rethink the situation thoroughly. _Dammit, Rebecca! If we both die, I swear, I will kill you again in heaven!_ "Oh this is going to reek!" he spoke the thoughts aloud and chased after her, hoping to catch up. _You really should have been a Dawn Warrior instead, like I suggested; fits your bill far better!_


End file.
